His tone had hardened and his gaze said he wanted to talk to her alone. Resigned, she straightened her shoulders and nodded.
The young deputy hurried forward. “Of course.”
Relda flowed into the act she’d perfected over the years. She shot the young man a slumberous smile and grabbed his hand. “Now, you’ll take care of my girl, won’t you, Deputy Hasan?”
His face flushed and he stammered. “Yes, ma’am.”
She squeezed his fingers. “I knew you would. Thank you.”
Alia hesitated for a moment, but something about the fresh-faced deputy must have soothed her because she accepted his hand. With one last look at Relda, Alia let Deputy Hasan lead her from the tent. Bindi scampered after them.
Relda sank back onto the cushions, trying to stay relaxed. She knew she needed all her wits about her to deal with Marshal Calder.
He arched a brow. “No flirtatious smile for me?”
She tucked a curl back behind her ear. “Something tells me it would be wasted on you.” He wasn’t the kind of man to flush and stammer because of a woman’s smile.
The corners of his mouth lifted for the briefest moment. “You might be surprised.”
That small, unexpected smile transformed his tough face. Relda felt a flush of heat on her skin.Oh, no. She wasnotattracted to this man. No way.
His features sharpened on her for a second before they turned serious again. “Are you hurt anywhere I can’t see?”
A traitorous image of him peeling off her clothes and examining every inch of her skin made the heat intensify. “No.”
He nodded. “Okay, then I have a question for you. What is the Trojan Moon?”
CHAPTER TWO
Relda Dela-Cruz was one of the most striking women Hunt Calder had ever seen.
A mass of brown curls cascaded over her slim shoulders and begged a man to tangle his hands in them. Her face shouldn’t have been beautiful—the line of her jaw was too strong, the blade of her nose too sharp. But combined with almond-shaped eyes of a deep nebula green and copper-brown skin, she was stunning.
Her lips were painted a vivid red designed to give a man fantasies. And her body…that gave him plenty of fantasies as well.
She covered it in flouncy skirts and that damned sash of coins that jangled whenever she moved. But her body was all generous curves and temptation, designed to bring a man’s cock to attention.
His certainly was whenever he was within a few meters of her.
“I have no idea what the Trojan Moon is,” she murmured, meeting his gaze head on.
She was tempting but she was also a liar.
She was damned good at it. If he wasn’t watching her so intently he might have missed the lie. But during his years in the Galactic Special Forces, he’d interrogated more people than he liked to remember. Added to that he was Predian, and his race had exceptional hearing, smell, vision, and reflexes. He was an expert at spotting lies. And in Relda, he detected the trip in her pulse that was at odds with the rest of her. Her hands didn’t fidget, but stroked the edge of a fat, jewel-blue cushion beside her, calm and easy. She didn’t sweat or look uncomfortable, she was perfectly composed.
Too composed.
“So, you don’t know what this Trojan Moon is?”
She spread her slim, ring-covered hands wide. “The only trojan moon I know is up there.” She pointed upward. “The captured asteroid called Khan sits in one of Souk’s Lagrangian points of stability and co-orbits with the larger moon, Hilal. That makes it a trojan satellite. It’s also home to the Phoenix brothers.”
She sounded like a damned schoolteacher, but she was still lying. “Yes, I know aboutthattrojan moon.” And the infamous treasure-hunting brothers who called it home. “But I don’t think that moon is what these men are after.” Hunt leaned closer. “It’s my job to protect the people of Medina and that includes you and your girls, Ms. Dela-Cruz. Help me out here. You don’t have any sort of artifacts that could be considered a moon?”
She shrugged. “I have several orbs in my tents, for decoration.”
He eyed the silver-pink ball on a small table nearby. Somehow it had escaped destruction. “You don’t use them to…tell fortunes?”
She tilted her head, her green eyes narrowing. “You don’t believe people have the ability to see the future, Marshal?”
